Matt Frost has a new post today helping to explain test-driven development (TDD) for the unconverted and some of the things that come with it in practice.

You've heard of Test Driven Development, but you think; "I've got a horrifying monstrosity for a codebase, it's not testable so I can't do TDD". Let me be the first to tell you that you're wrong. I'm not into writing really controversial pieces, castigating people for not doing things a certain way. If you've considered TDD at any point in time, it's because you understand (at least in the theoretical sense) that having predictable software is beneficial. So this is for you, unconverted developer...

He talks about how using TDD can help you build confidence in your code, make debugging issues easier in the project simpler and how - despite the initial time it takes to implement it in the process - it's worth it in the end. He also includes a few helpful suggestions when your team doesn't want to follow the method.

Anthony Ferrara has a new post today on his blog with some things he think you can do to become a better overall developer (and not just in PHP). He shares six things from his own experience to help answer this question.

One of the most frequent questions that I get asked is "How can I become a better developer?" I think that it's a very good question to ask that deserves a good response. But how can you respond to something like that? Becoming a better developer depends so heavily on past experience (where to grow), interests and rationale (why do you want to grow), that it's really hard to answer without a fair bit of discussion. This post reflects my experiences from both my own growth and the growth that I've seen in others.

The things on his list are pretty simple, but they're easy to forget in your day to day development life. Things like being motivated to better yourself, gaining confidence in your abilities, sharing your knowledge and/or becoming a mentor to developers with less experience than you. Interestingly enough, this last one can sometimes teach you a little something about you and your processes too.